U.S. men grabbed a pair of bronze medals in synchronized diving Friday at the FINA World Series in Montreal. 2016 Olympic silver medalists Sam Dorman (Tempe, Ariz./Miami, Fla.) and Michael Hixon (Amherst, Mass./Bloomington, Ind.) took third in synchronized 3-meter, and 2016 silver medalist Steele Johnson (Carmel, Ind./West Lafayette, Ind.) was third in men’s 10-meter synchro with Brandon Loschiavo (Huntington Beach, Calif./West Lafayette, Ind.).
Hixon and Dorman finished with 410.13 points, overtaking Canada in the final round to earn a spot on the podium. The Americans were fourth, just 2.37 points behind Francois Imbeau-Dulac and Philippe Gagne, heading into the last round. Hixon and Dorman had an edge in degree of difficulty and came through with 83.22 on a front 4 ½ tuck to move ahead of Canada, who finished with 80.58 on a front 2 ½ with two twists. China’s Cao Yuan and Xie Sijie scored 463.38 for gold, and Russia’s Evgenii Kuznetsov and Ilia Zakharov took silver at 425.10.
Johnson and Loschiavo scored 420.66 for their first international medal together after finishing sixth at last summer’s FINA World Championships. China’s Qiu Bo and Yang Jiang won with 472.11 points, with silver going to Russia’s Victor Minibaev and Aleksandr Bondar at 425.28.The Americans were in fourth place with two rounds to go before their front 4 ½ tuck scored 86.58 points in round five to push them into second place and five points ahead of the Russian team with one dive remaining. Both the U.S. and Russia did a back 2 ½ with 2 ½ twists in the final round. Minibaev and Bondar received 89.64 on the dive, with Johnson and Loschiavo scoring 79.92 on the same dive to drop into the third place spot.
Also on Friday, 2016 Olympian Jessica Parratto (Dover, N.H./Bloomington, Ind.) and Tarrin Gilliland (Liberty Hill, Texas/Midland, Texas) competed women’s synchronized 10-meter and placed fifth with 279.84 points. Malaysia’s Pandelela Rinong and Jun Hoong Cheong came out ahead in a close contest in which less than two points separated first from third. The Malaysians scored 322.74 points for gold, 0.84 points ahead of North Korea’s Kim Kuk Hyang and Kim Mi Rae. China’s Si Yajie and Lin Shan took bronze at 320.82. In fourth place after round three, a miss on an inward 3 ½ tuck in round four dropped Parratto and Gilliland to sixth. They closed out their list with 68.16 points on a back 2 ½ with 1 ½ twists in the final round to move up on spot to fifth.
The World Series meet in Montreal continues through Sunday. Parratto is slated to dive in Saturday’s individual 10-meter contest, and Hixon and Johnson will dive in the individual 3-meter event on Saturday.
